An unexpectedly boring German Grand Prix, this, for Hockenheim usually provides for more overtaking than most circuits, but if there was little excitement, there was certainly controversy. From the start the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso ran first and second, and on lap 49 they swapped positions, Massa very obviously backing off to let Alonso by.
Immediately there were howls of outrage, for ‘team orders’ are supposedly banned, and a ‘team order’ this unquestionably was, prompting some to compare the incident with the notorious happenings in the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, when Rubens Barrichello was ordered to let Michael Schumacher through.
Team orders are never welcome, of course, most people in the sport feeling that drivers should be allowed to race their team-mates, the only proviso being that they do not ‘take each other off’.
That said, to compare Hockenheim ’10 with the A1-Ring ’02 strikes me as a touch farcical. In Austria Barrichello completely outpaced Schumacher in both qualifying and race, and by the time the order came through from sporting director Jean Todt he had built up a considerable lead, and was not many laps away from the chequered flag. As well as that, the Ferraris were under no threat from any rival – and Schumacher already had an enormous lead in the World Championship. On the run up to the finish line, Barrichello had almost to stop in order to allow him to catch up.
At Hockenheim Alonso was considerably quicker than Massa in qualifying, but being second fastest (to Vettel) he necessarily started on the ‘dirty’ side of the grid, whereas Massa – third – was on the clean side. Away from the grid Vettel predictably chopped across to block Alonso, and as the two of them messed around Massa swooped around the outside of the pair of them.
It was a little like Malaysia, where Vettel snicked by team-mate Webber into the first turn, and the race result was decided right there. So difficult is passing in F1 – particularly between identical cars – that he who leads into the first corner is, all things being equal, going to win the race.
So why did ‘team orders’ come into play at Hockenheim? In their post-race remarks, the drivers offered little clue. Massa was plainly upset by what had happened, Alonso plainly embarrassed. There was a lot of mumbling about it being ‘a good day for the team’, and so on. Massa, asked to comment on the moment he backed off, smiled sadly: “I don’t think I need to say anything about what happened…”
“I think,” Alonso said, “that sometimes you’re quick, and sometimes you’re slow, depending on your tyres…” And Massa allowed that, on the very hard Bridgestones on which they ran for the bulk of the race, he was ‘struggling’ (although it hardly looked that way).
If Ferrari had a concern, it was surely that Vettel still lurked in third place, and not very far behind. Alonso may have been the faster of the Ferrari drivers, but he couldn’t get past Massa. The supposition was that if Vettel mounted a strong late-race challenge, Ferrari considered that Alonso would be better able to keep him at bay. May be right, may be wrong, but that’s what most people thought.
Whatever, the post-race atmosphere was certainly clouded, and that was a pity, because in all other respects Ferrari – after a run of miserable luck – could hardly have impressed more. It was good to see Alonso and Massa in the think of things, where they belong, and where they should have been all season long. “The car has been much better in the last few races,” Alonso commented. “We were very competitive at Valencia and Silverstone – but we came away with no points…”
Despite that, in recent weeks Alonso refused to rule himself out of the World Championship reckoning, and on the strength of the red cars’ pace in Germany he was right to do so. It was good that the Ferraris were so quick, too, for otherwise Red Bull would have been completely unopposed, McLaren being off the pace this time out. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished fourth and fifth, banking more World Championship points, but they were fully half a minute adrift of Alonso at the flag.
It was a low-key weekend, too, for Mark Webber, who started fourth after making a mistake on his final qualifying lap, but was obliged to take it easy for much of the race, the team much concerned by his engine’s excessive oil consumption. In the circumstances, Mark was happy enough to come away with sixth place, and eight points. The two Red Bull drivers, incidentally, now have 136 apiece, Webber ahead of Vettel in the standings by virtue of more victories, three to two.
If McLaren had a middling time at Hockenheim, for Mercedes it was not less than disastrous. Initially Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were encouraged by technical updates on the car, and spoke in terms of qualifying in the first six. When it came to it, though, Rosberg only just made it into Q3 – but Schumacher did not. Both finished in the points, Nico ahead of Michael as usual, but eighth and ninth places – behind Robert Kubica’s Renault – were not what Mercedes was looking for in its home race.
On Sunday evening Ferrari was required to explain its actions to the FIA stewards, and later it was announced that the team had been found in breach of Article 151c of the International Sporting Code, and would be fined $100,000. As well as that, the stewards’ statement said, the case is to be referred to the FIA World Motor Sport Council ‘for further consideration’.
Amid all the huffing and puffing and outrage, more reasoned observers considered this a lot of fuss about not very much. “Ferrari were too honest,” one cynic laughed. “All this talk on the radio, all this apologising to Massa… other teams do this sort of thing so much better, don’t they? They slow this driver or that by telling him he’s low on fuel, and need to turn his engine down, or something like that…”
The impression I get is that it is OK to violate this rule…as long as you camouflage it well enough. It is not wrong to do it…it’s wrong to do it obviously. This simply cannot be managed and therefore should be abandoned.
Jack T, your assessment of McLaren and Kovalainen is incorrect, anyone not wearing pretty rose coloured glasses can see that.
I thought I was just assessing their team orders at Germany 2008?
Tanveer ill make a trade with you. Lets strip Lewis Hamilton of his 2008 wdc and ill give you Alonsos Hockenheim points.
Interesting that ol’ Nigel is kind of apologetic towards Alonso for being quicker in practice but regularly lauds Prost and Lauda for their lack of qualifying speed but ability to win races. Surely Massa was demonstrating the same skills? If Prost was not allowed to win every time his team mate out qualified him he would barley have won a race when at McLaren with Senna. Qualifying should be the start of the story, not the end. I think the agreement that various drivers have had; that the driver to the first corner first be allowed to win is the best form of team orders. All this mid race swapping, even if its as old as the hills and everyman and their dog used to move over and let Fangio win, is still right to be banned. Lots of things were legal in the old days, doesn’t mean it was a good idea though.
I think its sad, and beyond my comprehension, that Alonso can even celebrate a win like this and walk round like he’s the dogs gonads. He didn’t win, he was allowed to have the race by a man who was better than him on the day. i cant stomach his whinging and crying, which didnt really come to light until paired with Hamilton. He, like Schumacher, will forever be sullied for only being able to shine with lap dog team mates. See how you go against Kubica or Hamilton Fernando, I dare you. until you do you will never be in the top bracket.
Jack:
Fine. Go ahead!
But Ferrari, Alonso and Massa need to be stripped of their Hockenheim points.
If Massa had been allowed to take his well-deserved victory, he would have been around 24 points behind Alonso with 200 still available!
Can you do the math?
What was the ratio of Kovalainen’s tally v Hamilton’s in relation to points available?
Further, If Alonso has made point-costing mistakes at 6 meetings this year and, now, needs a contract and team orders to pass his team-mate, then why do you think he deserves to be anywhere near a WDC?
Hamilton has destroyed Alonso in a weaker package this year.
It’s not even close.
Whereas Hamilton is using his devastating speed, supreme over-taking skills and error-free racing skills to monster the weaker McLaren to the top of the table, Alonso’s making rookie mistakes and needs Massa to lift off in order to win.
I can see the difference. Can you, Jack?
Cheers.
I seem to recall (and y’all can and will correct me) that at Imola in 1982 the Ferraris both were running out of fuel after battling with the Renaults. (It would be later in the season that Brabham brought back refuelling.) The Ferraris were told to hold position once the Renaults faltered, GV slowed to conserve fuel, but Pironi didn’t. They both ran the risk of running out before the race was over. There might have been a pre-arranged agreement, but I think it was the fuel issue that slowed Gilles down and enabled Pironi to make his ultimately fateful decision.
I can seee that if Mclaren did not use team orders at Hockenheim 08, Massa would now be crowned world champion.
Jack:
With all due respect, did you only see Hockenheim in 2008?
How come you conveniently forgot:
- Raikkonen moving over for Massa in China;
- Raikkonen using his pace and grid position to force Hamilton into going off at Fuji at turn one;
- Raikkonen not attacking Alonso for 2nd in the finale’ at Interlagos – as per INSTRUCTIONS from Ferrari (so as to not RISK a tangle that would send both RAI and ALO off) – and, thus, having Hamilton finish higher than he was running.
Why do you think Raikkonen stayed behind Alonso at Interlogos without attacking? Why do you think Raikkonen was unhappy after the race?
Jack, with all due respect to you, kindly do your homework before coming here and debating.
If Hamilton benifited from Kovalainen in 2008, then Massa benifited from Raikkonen even MORE, in 2008!
Again, Jack, please be balanced in your views and please know your 2008 Grand Prix history.
Best,
R Tanveer
The ‘no team orders’ rule is a farce. It can never be policed. Orders are part of F1 and always will be. Get over it.
Normally I would feel cheated, but this time not so much.
I’m much more of a Massa fan than Alonso, and I would have loved to see Felipe win, but from everything that I saw Alonso was often quite a bit quicker. Its stupid that they told him to pull over, I think that Alonso would have beat them if they were allowed to race.
But, everyone has been watching Red Bull run each other off the road this summer, so I suppose racing wasn’t going to happen.
Anyway, hardly the most cold blooded “move over” situation I’ve seen. And certainly no Imola 82 or Germany 02 comparison.
Like it or not. just the fact that we are talking about teams, means there is someone calling the shots.
Like it? definitely NO, but accept it is an natural part of how teams operate in any sport.
I like grand prix racing. Racing.
Over the years there’ve been plenty of instances of drivers following team orders but usually it’s been for understandable reasons. Or because someone had signed on as a number two, and that was the deal.
But for Ferrari to pull such a stunt at this stage in the season, as R Tanveer noted, revolts me.
Alonso continues to reveal himself and, sadly, each new piece of the jigsaw makes the big picture look less attractive.
I think that everyone needs to go and have a cold shower…I’m the same age as Nigel, have been watching GPs for just as long, and raced myself (in humbler formulae!) for nearly twenty years. We’ve both seen it all, and know full well that there have always been team orders in F1. However – for perhaps the first time – I have to disagree with him (and DC, and Brundle, and all the rest of the hard-bitten, been-around-forever brigade) on this.
We probably all agree that the ‘no team orders’ rule brought in after Austria 2002 was another ‘Dangerous Dogs Act’ – a knee-jerk legislative reaction which is unworkable in practice and urgently needs re-assessing. But I suspect we also all agree that Ferrari’s action in Germany was a blatant imposition of team orders; so, unless we are of the opinion that the rule of law is an option which we can choose to ignore, then we must agree that Ferrari was in the wrong here. Team orders are ILLEGAL. Perhaps they ought not to be, but they are.
And if we set a precedent of dithering about the rights and wrongs of such a rule whenever someone breaks it (especially Ferrari!), then we are on a slippery slope indeed. Everyone does it? Yes, quite probably, but that is not an excuse. A lot of people molest children, too. Also, ‘everyone’ imposes team orders with considerably more subtlety than Ferrari, ensuring that most people, most of the time, are unaware of it.
Of course, Massa deliberately made it as obvious as possible – why wouldn’t he, for God’s sake? – but even leaving aside his feelings (on the anniversary of his horrific accident), Alonso’s graceless petulance (as usual…) and possible clauses in their respective contracts to which we shall never be privy, we are left with an outrageous breach of a current regulation which no talk of championship points, team efforts and historical precedents can mitigate. It is demeaning to a sport which increasingly is viewed, in the wider world, as not a sport at all, merely a cynical marketing exercise by commercial interests and a cash cow for venture capitalists.
Sorry Nigel, but ‘twas not ever thus. The aerial shots of Hockenheim showed how the epic straights of the wonderful old circuit are gradually being overgrown and buried by the march of time. The same could be said of the traditional values of GP racing.
Yes, a shameful manipulation, and I’d favour a review of points awarded.
Hockenheim showed a well known unlikeable tactic, as inelegantly handled as Ferrari often do it.
Flagrancy is the issue, not the fact.
Putting six cars on the line at Indianapolis after a full pace lap was F1′s worst public moment in my opinion. Everyone in the business smelled insulting on that one.
We all know that push comes to shove late in the season, favour for, or rewards to a driver often twist results. Number two drivers suddenly winning one of the final races is often even applauded.
Fernando Alonso learned something at McLaren, that an implied number one isn’t worth the oxygen it takes to whisper it. He wants it bloody well defined, in neon light if necessary.
Throwing the switch so awkwardly, that was Ferrari’s fumble. They are hoping to build another dynasty on this man.
Kimi had other notions, but he was an heir apparent at Modena, as much as racing driver.
Massa has just re-signed, a pity really. He should find another top chair if he’s going to ace it. Renault or Mercedes possibly in a year or so.
Difficult niche, being a number one quick, number two. Really decent man to boot.
Gilles Villeneuve was a throwback in terms of chivalry, even in the ’70′s. He had an innocent assumption honor was rewarded by honor. The unhappy betrayal of that by Pironi at Imola, and Gilles reaction to it were catalytic to the events that took his life.
given all the rhetoric — can somone explain the difference between “match fixing” and Ferrari’s team orders to me. The team decided who was going to win the game / race smells pretty much like match fiximg to me. if this were any other international sport, bannings would follow, fines levied etc. Maybe we are all bluffing ourselves and rather realise F1 is NOT A SPORT anymore it is a business and therefore no semblence of sporting ethics should be applied in the activity and we shouldnt get upset when business decisions are taken ie german GP I repeat IT IS NOT A SPORT.
Well, Steve M, in that case you have to break the news to Mr Roebuck that he’s not actually a motor-racing or motor sport journalist.
You have to break the news to Mr Robuck that he’s actually a motoring business and product marketing reporter…and that he should send his CV into either the Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times of London!
Also, you may want to suggest to the publisher that she change the magazine title to Motor Commerce Magazine!
(Keep the colour scheme, though: The Colour of Money and – as an added bonus – Environmentally Friendly!)
Ha ha!
;)
We’ve whipped this horse plenty…I think it’s dead.
Mark Webber has won admiration for refusing ‘number two’ status in the Red Bull Team. Havn’t Barichello,Coulthard and Massa all shown contrasting weakness, and bowed to pressure and perhaps consigned themselves, by there very own actions to number two status ? Wasn’t it at the very point of conceeding a race place that they actually became de-facto ‘number two’ drivers ? Wouldn’t it then follow that they perhaps could be the ones who could fairly be punished by the FIA for ‘not racing’ ? Is It not possible that the paying public might get far better racing with this line of approach ?
James, I agree. However, Harry, this was my point entirely someway back in this discussion with my hypothetical situation at Hockenheim. What is the difference between the driver who allows a teamate through and the driver who elects not to pass? One gets punished and the other doesn’t.
What would be interesting now would be to ask DC, Rubens and especially Mika Salo whether with hindsight they would not have given up the position. Mika had perhaps one chance to win a GP, and he gave it up. Gilles main focus was winning the race, today, now. If the championship came with that approach at season’s end, well fine, but it was secondary to winning races. You win a championship by gathering an arbitary number of points as the FIA sees fit to dish out, but you win a race by finishing ahead of everyone else, by beating them. I think the focus on the albloodymighty championship somehow strangles the racing, no one is prepared to stick it in the wall trying anymore.
I wasn’t in favour of dishing points out to anyone below 6th because now we have people playing safe sometimes just to get a point or two down in 8th place. It was only to enable lowly teams to show their sponsors they had a few points, but I think it discourages drivers/teams from having a go to get higher up.
Most drivers only get a shot or two at a championship, and in some cases the same could be said for wins. It’s no good them saying in their dotage, that was one I could have won…..
Hugo Boss, you must have needed a lot of Pepto Bismol after Australia 1998. The FIRST race of the season…
Oh, but dont worry. China 08 was also team orders. So was Brasil 07. Or BMW at Montreal 08. Hockenheim 08 i used as an example because there the radio transmission was also broadcasted. The exact same words used. As with the other races, no fine or outrage or FIA statements about breach of 39.1
And that makes last sundays verdict very unfair.
After having almost a week to think about this, I think there are two sad things that stand out.
1, Ferrari still think they can do what they like – and get away with it.
2, Alonso….after the ‘Piquet crashgate’ I at first woudn’t belive that a driver would stoop so low as to deliberatly crash his car to influence the outcome of a race.
When this was susequntly proved, I looked long and hard at Alonso……did he know anything about it? It seemed tailor made for him that day…..
But I decided no…..
However, after Hockenhiem 2010, and hearing his rant over the radio,and then to hear his version of how he got past Massa, I thought this guy is very comfortable, lets say about ‘being economical with the truth’.
Sadly, the Schumacher mantle of ‘win at any cost – be it cosher or not’ seems to be settling around the shoulders of Fernando.
And like Schumacher it may brings glory in the short term, but the history books I suspect will record a career that was tarnished with just too much controversy.
I don’t like how everyone justifies these sorts of things by saying “oh but if Alonso wins the championship by one point it will have been worth it”. Yeah, but, what if he doesn’t? The chances are that Alonso wont win the championship this year. Then all Ferrari have done is rob Massa of a first win since his accident, made themselves look like fools and brought the sport into disrepute. For nothing. Doesn’t look like that great an idea anymore really does it.
R Tanveer
I’m shocked that you could call a coward to someone that over took M Schumacher on the outside at 130R, please don’t go over the edge, no one can challenge Alonso is a deserving world champion.
You may like or not the person, but not recognizing that Alonso is a top drawer driver is plainly wrong; yes, there are others as good and able to extract the very last thousand of a second out of their cars, with different personalities that you my like or not, but that is only a personal opinion and shouldn’t be put out of proportion or prespective.
By the way, if you don’t like and enjoy MotorSport Magazine or his editor, you are always free to join other forums
Motorsport readers and participants here understand the pros and cons of team orders. Some of us are for and some against, but this is not the point.
The point is the future growth of F1 which will be retarded if the casual F1 spectator believes the races are rigged. Look at the USA experience.
Imagine the new race in Texas with 200,000 spectators and a team does a switcheroo to change the result. Sure, all of us F1 tragics understand what happened and why it happened but what about the majority of the crowd and the local media?
That would be the death of the event for all practical purposes. We need to take the blinkers off and have some empathy for potential F1 fans and not just the current ones.
Well, we don’t know if Luca placed a significant wager on Alonso winning at Hockenheim and wanted to ensure that he collected…and we never will.
We do, however, know that Luca prefers doing other things – like sitting out on deck and taking in the sunshine – on a Sunday afternoon than bothering going to a Grand Prix.
He’s addmitted so.
The saddest thing about the events at Hochenheim is that 12 months to the day Felipe Massa had had his terrible accident at Hungaroring, it would have been a very special win for him. Ferrari and Alonso robbed him of that.
Immediately after the pit stops, Felipe Massa started to pull away from Fernando Alonso. Colajanni, Ferrari’s spokesman said the race was “progressing as normal“, then added “but as you can see, Fernando is faster”. Untrue, Massa was lapping quicker than the Spaniard.
A serious discussion took place on Ferrari’s pitwall, one the entire pitlane could see. Team principal Stefano Domenicali was busy talking to chief engineer Chris Dyer. At one point, Dyer put his hand up, to stop Domenicali . Soon after, Massa pulled out a three-second gap on Alonso. The discussions continued. Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley was on the radio to Felipe, at one point we heard him telling Felipe “The gap is three seconds, keep this going, and you can win”, Smedley clearly encouraging Massa. But when Massa was held up in traffic Alonso closed the gap. There were more discussions between Domenicali, Dyer, Smedley and Alonso’s engineer Andrea Stella for several laps before lap 48. Then Massa received the message from Smedley in a voice which could only be described as resigned, “Felipe, Alonso is faster than you, can you confirm you understand this message?” It was clear to all what that meant, and Rob Smedley did not want to give the order. Massa did not reply, instead, after exiting the hairpin, he moved over, slowed down and let Alonso passed. The replay from Massa’s car showed the telemetry, Felipe simply didn’t give it full throttle, he short shifted, from first through second to third ( no gears were missed as Alonso tried to imply) and his throttle was only half applied, once Alonso was passing, he applied full throttle regaining racing speed. All discussions on Ferrari’s pitwall stopped. Nobody spoke to anyone before Smedley got on the radio again “Good lad, now stay with him, sorry”.
As the race finished, Smedley was again heard over the radio this time telling Massa he was “very very very magnanimous” at that moment Domenicali, gave reporters a quote, “we are very happy with our one-two in the race”. On the podium, the drivers’ body language told a different story. Alonso said the win was “very special”.
Had Massa been allowed to take the win he so much deserved 12 months after his accident then surely it would have been very special, but for a so called World Champion who has not won a race in three years off his own merit to say that, Fernando just rubbed salt into the wounds.
Why then would Massa agree to this? Before qualifying in Turkey. EJ congratulated Massa on signing for two more years, he smiled dutifully, then thinking the camera was off him, his face dropped, it was not the expression of a happy man. Massa possibly thought when Raikkonen left, because of his time already served at Maranello he’d automatically be the number 1. Then along came Alonso who had no doubt learnt from his mistake of underestimated Lewis at McLaren. So he made sure he was number 1 at Ferrari and when Massa’s contract was up for renewal, he found out the truth.
In the 80’s Ferrari had a rule, whoever was leading with 10 laps to go would take the win and the drivers were not allowed to pass each other. This lead to the infamous events at Imola when, having lead most of the race Villeneuve assumed the win was his, he then allowed team mate Pironi to catch him and dice with him and swapping positions lap after lap to the end, Villeneuve ever the crowd pleaser. Then he retook the lead for the last lap intending a one two parade lap to the finish line. Pironi selfishly dived up the inside of him on the final corner and stole the win. Villeneuve was seething and the two drivers never spoke again. The following race was at Zolder, Belgium and in a last ditch effort to out qualify his team mate, Villeneuve lost it going into Terlamen and the car disintergrated. he died instantly.
In 1978, Ronnie Peterson was signed as Number 2 driver to Mario Andretti. He was not allowed to over take Mario and spent most of the 78 season following inches from Andretti’s exhaust pipe. Peterson was no doubt the better driver, and could have won the championship but F1 was trying to make inroads into the US and Andretti was given number 1 driver status. Sadly, Ronnie died after a first lap accident at Monza, whilst Andretti was gifted the championship to gain a most undeserved Championship title ( equaled only by Raikkonen in 2007).
This is what team orders has done for our sport. Austria 2002 saw Barrichello slow and let Schumacher passed, even though he was miles ahead in the drivers championship, because of that regulation 39.1 was introduced to stop teams instructing drivers to let their team mate past. In following years Ferrari employed other tactics, at Magny Cours Irvine came in to pit only to find he had three wheels, gifting Schumacher the victory, ( this tactic later cost Irvine the championship as Schumacher broke his leg and Irvine missed out on the title by few a points to Hakkinen) at Interlagos Massa had a ‘long’ pitstop giving the win, and so the championship to Raikkonen. Last week at Hochenheim it was yet another blatant breaking of the rules by Ferrari. Regulation 39.1 is there for a reason, Ferrari broke it, they must be punished, and we cannot see team orders come back into Formula 1 or there will be more Pironi-Villeneuve incidents, results like Austria 2002 and unworthy champions such as Raikkonen or Andretti.
Regulation 39.1, I vote it stays, and is made clearer so there connot be any ‘gray’ areas.
R Tanveer, are you insinuating that Ron Dennis may (or may not) have placed a significant wager on Mika Hakkinen in Australia back in 1998?
Once and again, driving rules HAVE to changed and very tough punishment have to applied to that kind of unsportive attitude !, that kind of example is terrible for young drivers, just remember last races Vettel blatantly doing the same; today’s 10 grid places for almost causing a terrible accident is too little in my opinion.
Why couldn’t FIA look back to IRL for that, IRL is not a even shadow of what it was in the early 90′s but they are a really good example of how to manage driving etiquette, good for them, but it could also be good for F1, I’m a believer that proper driving rules would improve overtaking as much as fixing aero rules !
I’m not a marshal, but I would have suspended M Schumacher for 3 races!
I think Nick Heidfeld would surprise every body and would be very close to Niko and could send M Schumacher back into retirement!
Rich:
Ron Dennis resurected a virtually finished McLaren and was on the pit wall in the thick of battle until he decided Whitmarsh should take the reigns.
Di Montezemolo couldn’t be bothered showing up to races, could he?
[Haven't you heard? Luca thinks its a bad idea to have Grand Prix races on tv on nice, sunny Sunday afternoons!]
Pathetic. Ron Dennis is like Enzo, Sir Frank, Champman. A racer!
Monty only cares about his hair and catching some relaxing rays of sunshine!
Pathetic!
:)
Stuart – it might be an idea to check your story a bit here re Ronnie- you maybe are right re Lotus car sales in the US but Ronnie signed up to a resurgent team when his own career had slumped at Tyrell and had agreed to no 2 status. Mad Ronalds words were something like – no i won’t overtake Mario he has developed the cars he deserves the world championship, to all sports fans Ronnie sense of propieraties was exemplary
what was tragic was that the 2 US WDC champions came with the two tragedies
Stuart- without commenting on the bulk of your rather long post, I will second DS’s suggestion that you read up on the 1978 F1 season.
In answer to a question, Nigel Roebuck wrote a very interesting and informative piece on the relationships at Lotus in 1978. If you can find it in the site archive have a look.